This morning on the "Today Show" there was a quick story about kids forgoing the summer job. The teens are deciding instead to attend summer school so that they can have an edge with college admissions and in college itself when the time comes.
At the end of the story they cut to Ann and Matt at the news desk and they ask each other what their summer jobs were when they were teens. Ann was a camp counselor and Matt mowed lawns and picked up trash.
Cut to me in my bedroom getting dressed while listening to the TV in living room and the tit for tat between them.
Yeah. I didn't have a summer job. I just had a job.
Apparently I grew-up in a different tax bracket than Ann and Matt.
First job, not counting babysitting, was at 15 working retail. If you count babysitting then my first job was when I was nine.
How about you? What was your first job or what was your summer job? (If you were so lucky to grow-up in that tax bracket.)
About Me
- Party Girl
- I am perpetually perky always optimistic yet slightly cynical. I am incredibly honest. I am honest, open, judgment free, and most importantly - honest. I'm a dork. I'm creative. I love trivia. I always have gum. I talk with my hands. I make faces at people. I'm sarcastic as hell. I adore vodka. And Beer. And wine. If it's fermented, I am probably a fan. I believe in laughing as often as possible. I am the girl next door. I am quick with a wink and a smile and a good laugh. Don't be hateful. This is my world, you're just visiting. I appreciate you stopping by.
15 comments:
My first job? Milking cows.
No kidding.
It's not as quaint and romantic as it may sound. There were very few Julie Andrews type moments with smiling bovines and 3 legged stools. The majority of the time was spent cleaning crap (literally) off the cows teats so you could attach the automatic milking machine in a sanitary fashion.
In case you're wondering, I don't miss it.
I grew up in your tax bracket.
If you count working illegally, it was working retail at a card and gift shop that my brother's girlfriend managed when I was 15.
"Officially" my first job was as a popcorn lackey at a movie theatre at the age of 16.....and yes I did work summers, AS well as the rest of the year.
First job was babysitting and nannying from the age of 10 to about 15 (same family, they just kept spitting out more children). Then I worked for a bagel bakery until I graduated. Then I worked retail, retail, and more retail, until I switched to a computer gig in grad school. Then I started working for health care.
It seems weird to just have "a" summer job. I can't even comprehend it.
Click on the word "Title" and you'll be able to put up a title.
First job was as a dishwasher in a seafood restaurant. One time while mixing cole slaw, (you'd be surprised and no doubt disturbed as to how much prep work the dishwashers were doing), I lost a band-aid in the mix. Since this was all the cole slaw for the night, we had a problem. The chef pondered it for a minute and then said "Ah, fuck it. Only one person'll get it and no one ever eats the slaw anyway."
True story. And no one ever complained about it.
Ph: Having watched several marathons of "Dirty Jobs" I am disturbed by how much the cows poo. Seeing the poo on the teats, equally disturbing. Seeing the guy who made flower pots out of all the cow poo, wow. Now that was a lot of poo-age. So much so there was a coo poo pond.
hst: Yeah. I was working illegally at the retail store when I was 15. I told the truth, but the person who hired me didn't pay attention to the paperwork and I working all kind of illegal hours. When I filed a work comp claim it all came out. The higher-ups tried to harass me into quitting. PG don't play that way. Me stayed.
ptg: Retail sucks. Lots of work. Lots of crap work. Lots of holidays working. Lots of cow poo wages.
limpy: well. I've done a lot of resturant work, so I'm not all that surprised.
I've been the highest-up grunt to the lowly waitress grunt. Everything from a gourmet place to a fast-food pizza chain.
Here are my true stories: pizza chain. started when I was 17. I had a crap schedule and worked very long days..anyway, one night after closing we were all standing around in the front area. The uniform was a skirt and a lovely top. Next things I know everyone was jumping up on the countertops out of fright. Why? because a small dog, a.k.a. the pizza chain rat, had just ran between my ankles.
Gourmet place: a fly landed in the chicken salad and promptly sufficated in the mayo. I went to throw-out the whole thing. The owner, a.k.a chef, was highly upset by this foolish action on my part and told me to just "scoop out the dead fly and a little bit around it. it's fine. You are NOT throwing away all of that food a.k.a. money.
This doesn't mention all of the lost fingernails, skin from chopping accidents, and other work related episodes.
I've babysat since I was oh... 8 or 9. Other than that I shelved books at the library starting at 14 and then when I turned 16 I started working at a vet's office
Yeah, I didn't grow up in that tax bracket either. I began working when i was 14 years old.
Not really because I had to, but because I wanted to have money for myself. I didn't grow up in a family where I received an allowance.... I always wondered what that would be like.
Anyways, I have been working ever since :)
My first "unofficial" job, (boy, was it illegal,) was stocking for cash under the table at a local liquor store when I was 14.
At 15, I was bagging groceries for $3.65 an hr.
At 16 I worked at a pizza place owned by a Pakistani guy who sold heroin and opium as his main source of income. He got deported a month after I graduated.
I then worked at an electronics store as a warehouse guy until the summer after graduation. (This was in 1990.) Easiest job I ever had.
This might have had something to do with me catching the store manager doing coke in the bathroom. I'm not sure. *snark*
I didn't work that summer.
I was joining the military in August of that year and somehow I knew I would need the time off.
I went from the easier job ever, to one of the hardest jobs I've ever had in three months time.
My first job was as a janitor/ maintenance guy/ laundry worker at our local hospital.
Shift work, paid about twice the minimum wage and I was surrounded by women.
I stuck around for 7 years.
I painted houses and commercial spaces until I dropped a roller which happened to be atop an extended pole along the lenght of a curtain on the side of the stage at a church auditorium.
Then I worked in a record store, a bagel store and a video arcade.
Ahhh, the 80's - when I really didn't need as much money to survive as I do now.
Bre: Notice none of the guys have mentioned babysitting. Interesting.
apple: I received $.50 for my chores and such when I was little, however, (sad and pathetic moment) my dad would "borrow" my allowance from me with the promise to pay me back.
He never did.
So, what was the point of an allowance?
(The $.50 shows I was a kid of the 70's and early 80's. Fifity cents bought you more then.)
Jay: Really? What could possibly be illegal about a 14 year old working in a liquor store for cash under the table?
What about that is wrong?
OMC: Oh hells yeah! How many "dates" did you get out of that job?
And by that, I mean, how many spin cycles did you go through?
And by that, I mean, how much did you get laid?
Tom: Gawd, your jobs took me back. An arcade? A record store? Ah, remember when those weren't vintage items?
Okay: I need to come up with a list of all of my crap jobs. I've been meaning to do this for awhile, now I think it is perfect dorking material.
PG, firstly - I have been lurking in your "World" for over a year now.
1st Job: at age 12 - 17, cutting the grass at a cemetary about 0.2 miles from my home.
At 16 - freshman year of college, bagging groceries (at the same store where my father worked - nice to have some inside pull to land that job) for $1.65/hr. {Wow, Jay was either working at a better paying joint or is a lot younger than me}
Bob: Ah, the lurkers. Glad you decided to comment because now I can lurk your way as well.
$1.65. I very distinctly recall making $4.32 at my first retail gig and thinking, "Holy crap!! I am making serious bank!" The min waage at the time was $3.65, so technically, I was making serious bank.
My first waitressing gig: $2.01 an hour plus tips. State law was it had to be above $2.00 an hour. Wow. Way to look out for the service whores.
My first job was folding laundry and babysitting at age 11. Then I babysat and tutored til I turned 16, when I finally got my first official job doing retail, then working at a cafe.
About college admissions getting tougher (and college getting more expensive) - I feel college is becoming more for the elite in our society. Some of us can't afford to take prep courses to look good on a college application! My parents told me that if I wanted to go away to college that I was going to have to save up because they couldn't afford university tuition. And save up I did - I even missed prom because I had to work.
http://migratingcoconuts.wordpress.com/
Sadly, I never got to play doctor with the naughty nurses.
However, I did get manage to get myself some eyefuls of boobage.
Good enough for a 15 year old. Kept me busy...
Post a Comment